Thursday, December 30, 2010

Seriously, they are such an interruption to real life. Weather you're playing games with friends or family or on a girl's trip/night or on a freaking date, there are bound to be a good 3 or 4 interruptions due to cell phones. Usually not important ones...ie, a text telling how amazing a dessert is or a call to tell someone that they finally pooped. Or whatever.

Ok ok, I guess cell phones are fine, but seriously one of my biggest peeves is when your'e talking with someone...seriously and "ring ring ring" or even worse, "You're beautiful, just the way you are (ringtones)". Ugh! And ok ok, maybe it is all spawning from my hatred for Jase and his attachment to his phone....on it till 11 last night, first call at 6 this morning. He needs a rubberband......

I miss having 2 weeks off 3x a year to do whatever we wanted...usually road trips through a few states.

I miss my hair

I miss Melissa (a friend that shouldn't live so far from me)

I miss the cheap pedicure place in Lewisville where the ladies always said I should be a model....I know they say it at all of them, but they'd always pick me out of whoever I was with and say, "you be model". I miss those ladies...I wanna see them everyday!

I miss playing on the golf coarse behind our Texas apartment when it was covered in snow. Or right after a big rain storm when the kids would run out ther snaked and splash around.

I miss my husband

I miss living really close to my sisters so I could go see them a few times a week.

I miss putting baby Jaden in the stroller and roller blading with him around Thatcher.

I miss going out into the parking lot of our texas apartment and letting the kids ride bikes and scooters for an hour before dad came home almost every day.

I miss perky boobs

I miss working with Jase for EA Glass.

I DON"T miss my Texas apartment

I DON"T miss getting glared at in the WIC offices

I DON"T miss humidity

I DON"T miss my DRebel

I DON'T miss my cell phone

I DON"T miss golf balls flying at our huge sliding glass door every day (breaking it completely one day)

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Alright, remember the days when the average blog would get 10ish comments? And now the average is .5 (I know who that one every other time is too.) So I've decided to do something for that person....3 handy secrets that make me happy. First secret is a photography trick...if you're a photographer (which about 75% of you already are) ignore. But for my friends that aren't...here'a tip. DON"T USE YOUR FLASH! Get your subject near a big well lit window if you're inside, and if you're outside, under semi shade that gets good light on their face...but not direct light....unless it's cloudy, then put your subject just about wherever you want...just watch for shadows under their eyes. This guy was shot about 2' from some huge windows, on the floor, with a couple of pillows under him.Now onto my next secret. I don't like sharing this one, but since I don't have but a reader or two, I'm going to....... http://myfrugaladventures.com She's great! She has amazing deals updated every hour or so. It's how I got so much for my kid's for Christmas. (and so much toliet paper and wet wipes for so cheap). Kam's glow in the dark crayola station....usually $40...sometimes on sale for $30...I bought it for $15! And other great sales. The reason I don't like to share is because a lot of the things she posts are limited quantity. Like last week I was one of the first 20,000 aveda facebook fans to get their 3 pack of their new smoothing stuff. I can't wait. I've never been able to afford aveda!

Ok, onto other things I can't afford. My friend (who's also full of awesome secrets) just told me about Brazillian Keratin. From what I've read and seen, it's amazing! I'm hoping to order it next month. It is for your hair and it works WONDERS!!!!!!! Both to make your hair healthy and to make it shiny. Check it outhttp://www.braziliankeratin.com/

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Today was awesome. Everything just worked out exactly how I imagined. It was JUST us...which has only happened once before. It was a white Christmas....fog, not snow, but still beautiful!And I was right, the peppermint peeps made the cannery hot cocoa even better!The kids LOVED all of their gifts. Jaden freaked out about the king size hershey's bar that he wanted so badly, Kam freaked out that Santa really got her the swingset (read below), Boston walked around sharing all of his stocking stuffers with everyone, taking one taste of his candy and cocoa and saying, "me all done, Me not get sick". Awesome

There was a gift w/o a number (we did numbers instead of names) under the tree, and I figured I just screwed up again, because yesterday we went through and had to figure out a couple of numberless presents. So I tried to carefully open it and saw that the box said....

WII!!!!!! I've wanted a WII since they first came out, but I've also been married to "no video games for my family" since they first came out...he caved!!!! yay!!!!

he also put this in my stocking to buy some games and stuff....(just dance 2!)

And although it was the day before Christmas...this has made me very very happy as well....Obviously I've only messed with it for an hour or so, but hopefully when I get through the manual and take a few hundred practice shots, I can take lovely pictures!!!!! yay!!!!!!!!

Best Grown up Christmas EVER!!!!! (nothing beats Christmas as a kid, no matter how hard you try)

I woke up at 2:15 am and asked J, "What time is it???!". "2:15". Ugh....ok, so I went back to sleep...til 4:30, "what time is it now??!"...."4:30". I laid there, and laid there, and got more and more excited, then at 5 I finally said, "I think I heard something, someone is awake!". Jase went to check...no one. So I just said, "let's get em up!". So we did. We went to the boys room and read from the bible, and prayed, and then of coarse, shortest comes out first....Boston didn't think the bike was really his...he didnt' ask for one, but Santa knew that his pedals were stubs, and he's way too big for his old bike. Smart Santa, if I do say so myself. Pearcen went to his stocking.........which was filled with avacados and bananas....best Christmas he's ever had!

So they all opened their gifts. Jase opened the 2 head lamps I bought him and let Jaden put one on, and they all headed out back to see how the head lamps work....and low and behold.... (this picture was taken after the sun came up)

Santa dropped a swing set!!! That's why it's kinda busted apart...Santa's helpers told him to start on it on Wed, but sometimes santa doesn't listen!...so Santa had to just drop it and some parts are needing to be put together today, but still, the kids were freaking out. Especially Kamryn who was yelling "It's mine, it's mine...this is what I put on my list!!!!! It's mine....but I'll let everyone play on it!"

Our house was FILLED with zhu zhu pets. I got one for each of the kids, Jaden bought 3 for Kam and one for Boss. They set up a battle arena in the 'band box" for the zhu zhus and kung zhus to fight the hex bugs. Unfair battle if you ask me.

Maybe not...those hex bugs move too fast for my camera. haha.

This guy had one gift under the tree, and I don't think it could have been more amazing to him.And of coarse, there's always one kid that prefers the boxes and paper to the actual gift. Boxxy Bossy.

But Jaden...he's 9!!!! I told him nine years is nothing special. At 8 you get baptised, at 10 you are in the double digits. So he needs to take this year to nurture and love his mama. bhaha!

Um, even though his mom was a horrible decorator for his birthday. I usually order balloons and get out the ole streamers and do the living room, kitchen and their bedroom...this was ALL I did this year.....Not even a happy birthday. lame.

But I have to say, I made it up to him with his awesome cake pops. They were cuter in real life...and before some grubby little hands tourtured them by ripping off their antlers.

Ahh, a party of naughty little 8 and 9 year olds. Nothing better!

For breakfast, Jaden chose crepes with cream and fruit...yum, for lunch he chose pizza for the party...ok, but for DINNER, he chose for me, my friend Ashley and her boy to go to Denny's. ugh! We were sick afterwards. (disclaimer...ashley and I had had a long day of many children and craziness...don't judge)But the boys LOVED their meals consisting of cheese quesasilla, chicken nuggets, apples, grapes and a FREE oreo shake. Jaden was soo excited that it was free!

6. That my parents are having their 1st ever Christmas in the WRONG HOUSE!!!!

There it is. I'm sure nxt weeks list will be completely different.

On a different note, just had the Skiddle family here. They didn't stay long, but it's always good to get a little taste treat of the Skiddles. They need to just build a home up here. Jaden, for his birthday, just wanted ashely, drew, me and him to go out to eat....and DENNY"S!!!! Ugh. So that's what we did. Luckily his breakfast request was crepes with fruit and cream. Mmmm!

The party went well, pictures to come soon.

For now, I must go prepare to rest up for the biggest day of my year! Christmas Eve 2010!!!!!!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Ok, last Wed I was soo nervous for my shoot. It was dark dark outside, and a storm was coming in, so I called and cancelled....on her machine, I know, not professional, and it was only about an hour and a half before the shoot. She called back about 10 minutes later and left a message on my machine saying that they took a family vote, and said they still wanna try.

I was freaking out.

I have been soo excited and nervous for this shoot for 2 weeks. 1 because she's beautiful and I knew that she had to older kids that would hold still and be dressed adorable. 2 because they haven't had family pictures in something like EIGHT YEARS!!! and 3. her husband went to HS with me, and I haven't spoken to him since HS....I was a weirdee in HS (more so than I am now) so I'm always afraid that people will think I suck at photography.

The storm followed me to Holbrook, but luckily it just drizzled, and you can't tell from the pictures. They did amazing!Then Friday night Lu and I decided this town needs some fun holiday parties, so we put one together in a week and it was fantastic! So much fun. It was our trial run to see if we want to do one next year, and we defaintely do!!!!Last night was our ward party. It was a lot of fun. They did the polar express theme and Santa came. And I snaped 3 quick pictures of the kids with him, and everyone looked great in all of them, except boss...and sadly this was the best one of Boss. ugh! 4 year olds. NOtice he's wearing footie pj's under his pajama bottoms...with a toe sticking out!It was fun to watch Jaden go up there since Santa was really his principal. He acted like mr. cool dude, kept his arms folded, just told him he wanted a nerf gun, and went on his way.Ah, I hate taking down Christmas, and I know I still have a couple more weeks til I have to, but I just love it. I love it! I love not turning on any lights in the morning or at night and just plugging in the trees and lights. Here's our usual bedroom tree.....and our woodsy red and brown decorated family room tree. I'm trying to do better at caring what my presents look like. I want them to look cute under the tree, but I want someone else to wrap them, I'm no good at it. Anyone wanna come teach me some tricks? Especially with bows????Ahh, and then yesterday I was able to take pictures of my friend Kiri's 1 week old baby boy. He was soo sweet. Not a super sound sleeper so we took a few quick shots, but he was soo sweet, and soo beautiful and made the cute sucky sound with his pacifier that makes me get pregnant. I just love it!And now the Mulder family blog is up to date. Today we're just hanging out around the house. I made the kids all pajama bottoms and let them open them last night before the ward party so they coudl wear them. I'm SOo glad I got them done in time, and actually LOVED making them and wanna do it every year.

Today we will be watching Nemo, playing old maid, getting my grocery list ready for our big anticipated trip to Flag tomorrow to take Boston to the dermatologist and wraping a few more gifts! I LOVE DECEMBER!!!!!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Ok, so my friend has baking day with her mom and sisters every year. I have made my mom do it with me for the last 2 years, and this year we had cake ball bakign day. But I have had a baking day every week! I LOVE TO BAKE!!!! Today at the grocery store there were just soo many good deals on baking stuff, that I went crazy. I got all of this!The total was $128, but after I put my card number in and gave em all of my coupons I got it down to $71. Which you're probably thinking, "what? That's not that good" But seriously, there's a heavy duty adorable red pie dish, organic apples, organic canned tomatoes (bad I know), 10 packages of the betty crocker cookies (they were .50, I had to for those days that the kids wake up and say, "we need to bring cookies to school today" which happens more often than you might think", a box of cuties, organic milk, lots and lots of apples, my hair dye wasn't on sale, but if you've seen me this week you know I need it anyways, and yea, there are about 8 cans of the pillsbury biscuts...don't get on me for that you health freaks...I just HATE making biscuts and gravy, but Jase loves it, and I'm not a fan of making home made biscuts or rolls (just bread), so I buy these. back off! Anyway, this explains one of the many reasons I LOVE OT BAKE...it's cheap...and delicious!

The past few nights this is what my bed has looked like....Jase has been out of town, so I make them all sleep in my room. haha. I do put the boys on the floor, but I love it! I LOVE LOVE them!

A couple of weeks ago we decorated the tree and Jaden wanted to put the star on....

It wasn't really straight.

ha, but we love it.

Is it so bad that so far in the month of December, I don't wanna go anywhere? I've don emost of my shopping online, and there really is no reason for me to leave. I like to bake, cuddle, wrap, decorate, bake, play around on the floor with the kids and bake. Ok, that's it, I'm posting a picture of my groceries today...that will help explain the baking.....

So, this last week I kept Kam home just for the morning (and she got a sturn lashing from her teacher who said, "you shouldn't be cooking when you have school") to have baking day with grandma. We made a kabillion cake balls. that was round 2...round 3 is tomorrow. Each time we make about 200-300. I love making em!I've also been bogged down with shoots this last month. I feel like I should weigh 300 lbs from sitting at the computer all day. I hate it, but I LOVE LOVE taking the pictures and seeing them on Christmas cards, and people's walls. That's my favorite.

And I love meeting awesome families like these guys. They were soo fun to shoot.

I notice that when I'm home alone, I turn up the ole station Beyonce on Pandora and dance like crazy. I dance like I did when I was 19....beyonce arms, shakira hips, body rolls, and a few moves that look a little too choreographed. Please say all stay at home mom's do this.

Or this time of year, I have the Christmas station pulled up all day long on Pandora, and I do a lot of Broadway type moves. Lots of high kicks, jumping through the air and jazz hands.

Friday, December 10, 2010

At a yard sale this past spring, Boston HAD TO HAVE these boots....which actually belonged to his friend. He wore them for a few months straight...even through the summer. And now they are finally getting too tight. And he's sad.

He'll squeeze t hem on and off every few days, but they're tight. Luckily I think Santa is going to hook him up. But I LOVE LOVE these boots and how much he loves them.Boss is rad. The past few days he's been LIVING outside on the side of the house in the small dirt patch that we have. Our neighbors came over to flatten out some of our dirt for an upcoming Christmas present and Boston thinks he came to do it to make a "fake sidewalk" for him to ride his tractor on. I love it. He says, "no pokies on the fake sidewalk, Me don't have to wear shoes". He was getting jealous today that I was taking Pearcen's pictures, so he sprawled out on the sand and said, take pictures of me!Speaking of...this is how he crawls outside. He looks like a ginormous stink bug. It's awesome!

Boston has spent almost the last 2 days straight out in the little patch of sand we have on the side of our house. No jacket, no shoes. luckily it's not too cold out yet. But he always wants me to bring baby out. So a couple times a day Pearcen and I go out. pearcen LOVES IT!

He kept dropping his pacifier in the sand and popping it back in his mouth...it'd weird him out, but it wouldn't stop him. So gross!!!!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

So, Jase took the job as Holbrook's sideline doc through football season so that we could FINALLY buy the kids a playground set. yay! We've said for over 3 years that we're going to get them one, and we keep not finding one on Craigslist, so we finally just splurged and got them a killer awesome one from Sam's. We're super excited, and super going to not be buying food for a couple of weeks. haha. But it's done, and I'm excited.

We told the kids that there would be no presents for them under the tree. Strangley, they were ok with that...as long as there were stockings. So we've been buying small things to put in their stockings, but it's hard to not just buy a big ole whatever. And I do have to say that for Jaden we bought a wrappable gift, because all he asked for was binoculars and a king size plain hershey bar. He's just awesome.

As for me. I am asking Brother Clause for the same 3 things that I've been asking him for for over 3 years....

Because the one my mom gave me at my HS graduation has been on the fritz for 8 years, and although my friend gave me one for my 30th, it too didnt' last long, so I now have my mother's Bernina up here to finish my projects...I want my own Bernina! Is that too much to ask?

Because I frickin deserve a Bosch! That's why I'm asking for it. I had a Kitchen Aide for a few years, which was a pain, small bowl, didn't mix clear to the bottom and couldn't handle much. So I've spent the last few years watching most of my friends use their awesome bosch's whilst I mix my bread by hand for hours becaue I sold my Kitchen Aide at a yard sale for money to go towards my Bosch....that ended up going towards food.

This....ahh, this! I'm getting this. Santa has already warned me that I'll be getting nothing again for Christmas....stupid naughty list...so I'm buying this one on my own. I'm taking out a loan (interest free) and I'm taking weddings this year....If I have this camera, I'll have the confidence to do weddings, and if I do weddings, I can pay this baby off in no time.

So that's my list to Santa.

Well, since I've been the only one awake for a couple of hours now, and I've been here blogging, facebooking and e mailing my sisters for a couple of hours,... I'm now bored of it, so I guess I'll go wrap some gifts.

101 things to accomplish before we hit 40!

DONE Working on it Not done Hopefully THIS yearLikely NOT to happen

Italy!grow a mustache (jase only)Get a kitty for Kamrynhit a flea market in Mainesee the statue of libertyopen an ice cream /soda shoppemake the jeep family travel worthymake out at the drive in (scary)attend a live general conferenceeat only fruits and veggies for a week (1/09)tour Yellowstone National Parktake a REAL mud bathtake a helicopter tour (super scary)go on a sisters/brothers weekend getaway (never going to happen)have a family sleep out on the trampline with campfire breakfastmake the clinic our dream clinicbuild a white picket fence for our houseget a breast liftread the old testemant (scary)love my handwritingreinact honeymoonlook good in swiming suits (7/08 for a couple of weeks)teach the kids to skimake quilts for all of my sistersgo to a marriage seminar for fungo on a hiking trip with only GPS to guidehave 6 kidslearn Italiancamp on the beach (scary)take a taxi...a yellow one!go to the mall of Americaget buried in the sand at the beachgo to young, az (12/07)box canyon (11/07)own a dune buggyRT black bull wings (2/09)stay at a bed and breakfast (12/07)eat cheese on apple pie like grandma hatcheat authentic navajo foodgo to taping of tv show againstay on a house boat at lake powelldo the splitshave lots of family timehave a costume party (adults only, not for halloween)Jaden earn his eagle scoutstay in a suite at a luxury hotelhike salt river canyon againfly 1st classhave all debts competely paid offeat a half gallon of ice cream at one timebench 225lbsOregon farmer's marketsurf in hawaiirun a marathon (scary)service mission as a familyprovide Christmas for other families (12/08 and hopefully every year for the rest of our lives)make full size quilts for all the kidsdrive up Hwy 1 againhave the home of our dreamsDMB concert againbeat justin @ raquetballgo to blue man group (6/08)heated pool (our own)stay in bed til noon (never going to happen)disney cruisebuild a custom playground for the kidshave an underground trampolineget into a size 8 (6/08 even got into a 6 for a few weeks)fly fish in Oregongrow a gardenfray concert againget lasikteach the kids to surfmake danish pastries w/ grandma mulder (12/07)deep sea fishingsleep in a wigwam (2/09)alaskatake a salsa class (08/08)scuba dive (scary)take a hip hop classbike long distance (gag)take kids to Disneyland (4/08)havasupiNYChand glide (scary)stay a week in a beach houseDo a live session in SLCchurch history sitesdrive a lamborginicruise, just the 2 of us (again, scary)eat sushi (1/08)hot air ballooning (scary)Paris!Ski Colorado (12/07)